


History and Social Sciences

by WanderingBandurria



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - College/University, Bisexual Character, Canonverse tho, Chance Meetings, Coming Out, Drinking, Family History, Fluff, Gay Character, Getting Together, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Minor Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Neighbors, Past Teddy Lupin/Victoire Weasley, Post-grads, University, Very Very Mild, aren't we all, but oh boy they are anxious, life on campus, they are adults
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:48:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25836760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingBandurria/pseuds/WanderingBandurria
Summary: James Sirius Potter, 24, is starting his Master full of hope and excitement.Enters Teddy Lupin, 30, PhD student, James’ father’s godson and James’ cousin’s former boyfriend, who he hasn’t seen for 10 years.---A post-grads magical AU that nobody knew they needed.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Teddy Lupin/James Sirius Potter
Comments: 15
Kudos: 85





	History and Social Sciences

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LikeABellThroughTheNight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LikeABellThroughTheNight/gifts).



> Hello!!! This is my first Jeddy fic - I'm usually writing Wolfstar, but my friend M. was having a hard week and she loves Jeddy, so I decided to write this for her. 
> 
> Thank you, M., for everything. Thank you for betaing this fic. Thank you for so, so much. This is for you with a lot of love.
> 
> English is not my first language and even with all the help of M., past tenses are a bitch (for me at least) and I still struggle with prepositions and etc., so please, please let me know if anything sounds weird or if you spot any mistake. One of my main goals with fics is improving my written proficiency, so as far as you are nice, I'll be forever grateful to you.
> 
> Anyways! Hope you like it!

\---

James Potter didn’t have to carry the weight of the world over his shoulders. That was his father’s fate, after all. And even though he carried his grandfather’s and his best friend’s names, he didn’t feel it like a weight - it was more of a permission to do everything they didn't have the chance to do because of the wars.

So when he moved to the other side of the world to do his Master’s on sociology (sports sociology, with a focus in Quidditch around the world, but nobody had to know that, except for his program convenor, a clever witch who loved to have both Muggles and wizards in the same classes), he felt nothing but completely invincible. He was ready to live as a Muggle as much as he could. He was ready to make friends with everyone. He was ready to _rock his research._

“Hey, Jamie,” came a mocking, familiar voice from his door that was open while he brought in the boxes with items he had shopped for in a big, weird thing called _Ikea._ Muggles were funny, they had so many wonderful things, that James just couldn't stop himself.

So when James turned to say hi to the friendly neighbour, who somehow knew his name - maybe it was one of those _senior residents_ people that were supposed to help him settle in and solve his doubts? - he was prepared to be friendly and maybe find a pal to go out with for a beer after unpacking.

He wasn’t ready for _Teddy fucking Lupin._

So, of course, he dropped the box he had in his hands, that crashed to the floor.

“What the - Teddy?” he yelped, and before he realized it, he was already hugging him. Teddy just smiled and hugged him back. A flock of birds seemed to nest in James’ stomach.

“Glad you still remember my name, kiddo,” Teddy laughed in his ear, making James jump back when the gush of air from Teddy’s mouth tickled him - and the shock of electricity that followed the ticklish sensation was the only reason he let the pet name pass.

“What are you -? why are you here?” he managed to say, a big smile on his face and his confidence coming back at the sight of Teddy’s reddened cheeks.

“What, you didn’t know? I’ve been doing my PhD here since last year. I thought your dad had told you lot,” he said, genuinely surprised, picking up the last boxes from the floor and getting them inside.

“Fuck, no, I don’t think so. Or maybe he did and I forgot,” he said, his stomach feeling a bit too heavy. Was it possible that his dad had mentioned that Teddy was here, and then just shut up about it when James applied to a program in the same Uni? Well, it was a bit weird, but James had lived alone since he was 18, and even though he had dinner with his family once a week, there was always so much going on, that when James had mentioned he was applying to do a Masters abroad, they just had accepted it and all that implied - the moving to the other side of the world included. They probably had mentioned that Teddy was also in the country, but James had filed it away, in the depths of his brain, thinking that there wasn't much of a chance of them running into each other in a big-ass country like this one.

Was it possible that James had decided to come to this university because a part of his brain knew that Teddy was here?

“Well, doesn’t matter now. As soon as I saw your name on the list of new residents - you know, because I’m the senior resident for all the magical people here -, I was ready for you. Come on, I’ll help you with whatever it is you bought for your _furnished room_ later. We are going on a tour now.”

And with that, Teddy took his hand and pulled at him, making James’ heart jump, and _oh no, now wasn’t the moment for his crush on his cousin’s former boyfriend to play out._ No thank you - James was a grown-up; had been for a long time. He wasn’t letting his little childish crush, from when he was like, what, thirteen? get out of control. So even with Teddy broad smile, his hair shining a shade of bright blue, and him pulling at his hand, James forced his heart back into its place. Nope, there was _no way_ he was going to lose his shit.

“Don’t forget your key! I won’t open the door for you if you ever leave it behind.”

James spluttered.

“But that’s literally your job!”

“Don’t care. My first job is to teach you to not be a knob. I might have failed in my first attempts at that when you were thirteen, but I won’t fail this time.”

\---

Well, James was losing his shit and letting his childish crush get out of control.

He, who was always so self-assured, to the point of being called cocky, was making a fool of himself over and over again, every time he was in front of Teddy. 

He didn’t know if it was better or worse that he was also making a fool of himself in front of other residents of his university housing.

The first time he did so was during the welcoming ceremony for his residence. He had been gushing for twenty minutes with a fellow resident about how great Teddy was - how nice to everyone, how smart, how welcoming, how wonderfully blue his hair was - just to find the object of their discussion looking at them, holding his laughter, right at his back when he turned to get a new beer.

Good thing that Teddy _was_ that nice, and didn’t mention anything, and just invited James and his apparently new best friend, to go with him and some other residents to dance after the ceremony.

It continued with James getting locked out of his room wearing only a towel. His fire alarm had gone off, and he just rushed out of the small apartment (if you could call an _apartment_ the tiny room with a kitchen and bed crammed together), as the protocol said. The alarm stopped a minute later (next day’s investigation showed it was a fucking spider messing with the cables), and there he was, soaking wet and without his keys. Humiliated, he walked the five meters that separated his room from Teddy’s and asked him for help.

Teddy laughed and laughed, lent him some clothes, and made some tea for him, but refused to open his room until it was his turn to have the keys of the rooms for the night.

Not that James complained much, because that meant that he got to spend the afternoon with Teddy, talking about their semester, and laughing about the more recent hall gossip, and playing a weird thing that Teddy had, called _play station_ that really confused James, because it was not a _station_ properly _._

Teddy was very patient with James’ frankly disturbing lack of knowledge of Muggles' ways. He just smiled at James and told him that he had been just as clueless a while ago, being raised by his grandmother, but that he had more time to adjust to things since he did all his studies after Hogwarts in the Muggle world. It was his way to connect with his father’s history since he was a half-blood, with a Muggle mom. 

After that, Teddy started inviting him over to his room once or twice a week to have tea and chat. Sometimes, they played with the games. Most of the time, they just talked about what they had done in the past ten years, or about James’ soccer and Quidditch games, and life on campus, or about Teddy’s history, especially his father’s, which Teddy had been researching since he left his home. His grandmother wasn’t a big fan of his father, so he had to do that on his own.

Other times, they just let their heads fall onto the table and they moaned about their studies, and James cursed his coursework, and Teddy told him to shut up and wait until he started his thesis.

It happened again - the humiliation thing, his crush getting out of control, call it whatever you want - when James, in a desperate attempt to get over his crush on Teddy, had asked out a classmate, and Teddy had run into them snogging outside the building where they lived, the other man’s hand shoved into his trousers. 

Teddy had cleared his throat, and James had jumped back, disentangling himself from the guy. His date had smiled at Teddy and looked hopefully to James, probably waiting to be asked to go into his room. 

But James only had eyes for Teddy, whose face was set, the smile forced. James could see how hard it was for Teddy to swallow. James had turned then to his date, said “I’ll talk to you soon,” and pecked him on the cheek. The man had frowned, but nodded and left as fast as he could.

James hadn’t found it in himself to feel ashamed for being an ass.

“By all accounts, you don’t have to dismiss him because of me. Just,” and Teddy had seemed to be battling the words out of his mouth, “next time, just take things to your bedroom if you are going to go any further, yeah? You don’t want to be called into Office for, well… fucking in a public space.” 

James had nodded and had felt the blood rushing back to his cock at the sound of Teddy saying _fucking,_ even when they both laughed awkwardly after that. James had stood there, unsure of what to do, but Teddy had just said, “good night,” and had run to his room.

\---

“My dad was gay, you know?” Teddy said the next time they were together having dinner at Teddy’s, after half an hour of fumbling around, trying to avoid the topic of James-snogging-a-boy-outside-the-building. “Well, that was how he identified himself, at least before my mom. He...” and Teddy cleared his throat and looked sadly at his hands grasping his cup of tea. “He sent some letters to some friends that I tracked down after Hogwarts. They weren’t sure about showing them to me, because… Well.”

“What?” James asked, genuinely interested, and a bit relieved to be addressing the topic in the weird way that Teddy sometimes talked about things, speaking of history, the past, and magic. “Too graphic?” 

Teddy laughed and looked at James with tenderness. James’ heart stopped. 

“Quite the opposite. They were beautiful love letters that, well, talked about Sirius.”

“What? Sirius, as in my dad’s godfather?”

“Yeah,” said Teddy, looking back down, this time into his cup, like he was trying to guess the future in the swirls of steam. Maybe he was.

They stood silently for a beat, James’ mind whirling around. 

“Woah. Heavy stuff,” he said, without intending to. He shut his mouth immediately, but Teddy was already laughing. James started laughing too.

When they calmed down, James swallowed and said “I’m gay.”

Teddy nodded.

“I thought you might be. I’m bi, by the way,” Teddy added, and immediately looked a bit awkward, his cheeks going red. Teddy sipped on his tea, his eyes going to a point at the side of James’ head.

James felt a shot of hope hitting him but he quickly pushed it down. It didn’t mean anything, Teddy was just trying to be honest, to clear the air between them. Even so, he felt somehow bold, so he asked, “Is that why you broke up with Victoire?”

Teddy looked at him long and intently, but then just smiled, and shook his head.

“Break-ups are always a bit more complex than that, Jamie. But yeah, it played a part. I needed to figure out who I was, outside of the close relationships with the Potters, the Weasleys, my grandma… I needed to figure out how my history related to my present, so I could be freer. And being with Victoire always meant going back to what was already so familiar, so easy, where questions weren’t always welcomed. I think you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

James thought of his dad, who resented talking about the past so much. He thought of his mom, who always talked about her childhood with her brothers. He thought of his uncle Ron, who everyone told him he was so similar to. He thought how he laughed and carried on, even though he had all kind of shadows in his eyes. He thought of his grandparents, the dead ones and the ones that were still alive.

He thought of Sirius Black, whose name was like a shadow in his life. A weightless shadow, that never felt like a burden, but a shadow nonetheless. He thought of how little he knew about him - the man that Remus Lupin had been in love with. He thought of James Fleamont Potter. He thought of Albus Severus, that carried his names like a death sentence, and being a Slytherin like a badge of his misplacement in the family.

“Yeah, I do.”

That night, James thought of the past and the present, history, memory and imagination, and love and pain. 

\---

On the next few weeks, James was in a hectic heap of classes, essays to turn in, research projects and all in all, a lot of coffee and a complete disregard of his sleep schedule. 

Teddy made sure to bring him food almost every afternoon, but even when James insisted that they eat together, Teddy always made an excuse, or simply said that he knew James needed the time to work. James argued that he needed time to socialize too. Teddy countered that he would have time for that later and that he also had classmates for that. Even with the stab of pain at that last phrase, James also saw something bitter and uncertain in Teddy, so he stopped pushing.

In the residence’s party to celebrate the end of exams, James got wasted and danced on a table with a couple of friends, while Teddy talked with some older residents, laughing and laughing. After a while, Teddy jerked his head in the direction of the door, so James found himself outside of the building without even thinking of it. An eternity, or maybe five minutes later, Teddy came out too, smiling, and started running towards him, taking his hand and pulling him to an empty lot, where they cast a few Muggle repellent charms and started shooting colourful sparks from their wands, like the Potters always did to celebrate the end of a year. With his heart beating fast, James reached with his hand and took Teddy’s. Teddy squeezed it back and didn’t let go, but his eyes were looking up at the colourful fires that danced around.

When he finally looked down, he smiled at James, brought his hand up, and kissed his knuckles. James felt dizzy.

So he bolted and puked in some bushes.

\---

Two weeks later James was outside Teddy’s door, knocking relentlessly.

“James?” Teddy said, looking uncertain. His hair was a paler shade of blue than his usual colour.

“Weren’t we going on a trip to the coast this weekend?” James asked.

Teddy frowned and started to play with the hem of his jumper. James wondered, idly, if he always did that, and if James just hadn’t caught up on it. He wondered if maybe Teddy’s dad had done the same.

“Um, I have a lot of work, Jamie. I don’t think -”

“You told me you needed a break and that I should make you go, even if I had to force you, so we are leaving now, Teddy. I already picked the place. We can apparate right away - it’s a wizarding beach, so no risk,” he said, feeling his heart go faster.

“Jamie,” Teddy started again, his hand going to his hair that was getting even paler.

“It’s _your_ fucking thesis, Teddy, you can decide to get a day off and make up for it tomorrow,” James interrupted, impatiently. “I know it’s important, I know you love your work, but you made me promise you that I would make you take time off, so. I don’t intend to break my promise.”

Teddy sighed.

“I don’t know, James. I don’t think it’s wise for me to go.”

James racked his hands over his hair, frustrated.

“Why not, Teddy? You haven’t had a fucking break in two weeks. We haven’t seen each other at all, and I get it, I really do, but you have to _stop_ at some point and take care of yourself. I’m not even asking you to stop for the full weekend. Just today.”

“It’s not that, James,” Teddy said softly, but then he just shook his head and shrugged. “Alright, take me to that beach. At least we’ll be able to talk there without half the building knowing about it,” he said, side-glancing to the door beside his, where a shadow quickly jumped away from the door. _Nosy sorcerer_ , James thought.

When they arrived at the beach, it was, of course, cold and windy, being the middle of winter. James shivered, cast a heating charm, and started walking, Teddy trailing behind him. Both of them were silent. James could _feel_ Teddy thinking. And he thought he had a pretty clear idea of what he was thinking about.

He bolted, resolutely, his eyes ablaze.

“Am I too familiar to you?”

Teddy blinked at him, like he was getting out of a fog.

“What?”

“Am I too familiar? You know, familiar - too easy, someone that won’t let you ask questions?”

Teddy looked dumbfounded at James. He seemed to be shaking a bit.

James took a step closer.

“Do I feel like a blurry memory to you because we knew each other as children? Am I a call home, a constant reminder of what you left back in England, of what you decided you didn’t want for yourself? Am I a sentence to relive your father’s life?” he asked, finally, raising his chin.

Teddy was silent, looking at him intensely. He thought for a long time, like he was really weighing the words, and then he shook his head.

“No,” he said, simply, and smiled his big, bright smile. His hair, that was almost white a few seconds ago, started getting the colour of a pale, spring-day sky.

“Good,” James said, and he walked towards Teddy. They were almost nose to nose, with Teddy looking softly at him, but he couldn’t stop his urge to talk. “Because I know you worry about it. I know you worry about me being younger. I know you worry about what my dad would say. I know you worry about us, playing the part of your dad and his lover. _I know you, Teddy._ Stop worrying. We’ll figure it out. The past can be a jail or it can help us understand ourselves better, so…”

“Jamie,” Teddy interrupted him, smiling wider, taking James’ face between his hands, warming James’ cheeks that were cold because of the merciless wind. “ _I know you too._ You can stop worrying too. I won’t jump away at the first chance I have.”

James smiled brightly and nodded, and taking Teddy’s neck, kissed him, softly, firmly, deeply. He kissed him knowing it was the first time. He kissed him thinking of all the times to come. He kissed him for all the versions of themselves, of others, that were being wrapped together in this moment, in a weird swirl of times and places.

He kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him. And Teddy kissed back.

\---

When they got back to their building that afternoon, the cold was getting to their bones, their clothes and hair were full of sand and their skin clammy because of the sea breeze, so Teddy took James’ hand and pulled him resolutely into his room, where he undressed him and made him jump into the hot shower with him. 

They were having tea with biscuits when a loud knock made the door shake, and a voice of a witch came into Teddy’s room through the wood.

“Did you guys sort yourselves out already?? I need you to open my fucking door, Teddy, so if you could do your fucking job for once, that would be great, mate!”

Teddy rushed to the door, where the girl was waiting with a big smile on her face. James just laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

\---

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, it was so hard to write the line where James tells Teddy that it's his thesis and he can set his own timeline. Please never say that to someone doing research!
> 
> This was fun to write and cathartic on a level, haha. Please let me know if you liked it with kudos or comments! This is my first take with Teddy and James, so I would love to discuss your perspectives on them.
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr!](https://wanderingbandurria.tumblr.com/)


End file.
